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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Cover Of Darkness

Readers, please help me welcome Gregory Delaurentis to the blog. Gregory is guest blogging on his Muse. Gregory, thank you so much for stopping by.﻿

PONDERING THE MUSE

Everyone sees the Muse
differently, which I expect causes them to react to her differently. I see the
Muse somewhat as a Siren, singing on the rocks. But instead of being lured to
one’s death, the Muse aids a writer in forming ideas. In a writer’s spurt of creation,
there are lots of starts and stops along the way. I call them ‘mini writer’s
blocks’. The real Writer’s Block can jam up a writer for days, weeks, months.
But a mini can stall a writer for hours or days.

When this happens, I do
something else entirely, but hopefully something to do with reading or
experiencing life. I think at this time the mind releases itself from the work
of trying to build the next scene of your story, or trying to make some form of
logical leap from one thought to another, whatever it is, the conscious mind
releases itself from the chore. Then the subconscious mind takes over, without
one’s clear knowledge.

This to me is the song
of the Muse. This is her paper thin voice wafting in the air, breezing past the
ear, touching the mind with a cool caress. This is the mind at its best, and it
cannot be forced. Like a Muse you cannot demand her to act in your behalf, you
have to let time pass and leave it up to her. Also if you free yourself from
all anxieties about continuing on with your story and show immense patience,
the Muse will never let you down. You need to have faith in her and her ability
to act in your behalf. Meaning, in the literal sense, your subconscious will
always come to your rescue.

For me, I am always
open to the song of the Muse, and when I’m stuck I’ll quickly drop writing and
go onto something else. It’s not that I don’t want to tough it out and work out
problems with the story; I just believe that my unconscious mind is more
creative and inventive than my conscious mind trying to force a round peg into
a square hole.

But no matter how you
view the Muse, no matter what you think of her in your imagination or your
reality, you have to admit that the process works to your advantage at times no matter what type of writer you are.

Thank you so much, Gregory, for your interesting ideas. And now for a blurb and an excerpt.

Blurb:

A
high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people
against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two
ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is
his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces
operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer,
they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling
onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a
gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down
a brutal murderer.

EXCERPT:

David
stopped pacing, and then started working on a rock embedded in the dirt with
the toe of his shoe. “I wonder why MacDonald didn’t say anything in the
interview about the cops being present. He should have told us that there were
cops in the Midnight for protection—making sure the dealers were selling and
not using.”

“Maybe,”
Kevin ventured, “he didn’t want to drop a dime on his cop friends. Maybe he was
frightened.”

“Maybe.
That would have helped us a lot,” David said, his eye caught by a shapely girl
on a bike riding nearby.

Margaret sat up. “That would also
explain how the killer got past the gate and simply walked into the house. He
could have been flashing a badge.”

“That
makes some sense,” Kevin said. “And certainly cops can kill.”

“They
make the best assassins, don’t they?” David quipped.

“So
now this is a cop hunt?” Kevin asked.

“I
would rather it end here, guys,” Margaret said.

David
approached the two and stood over them. “The question is now how to hunt the
most dangerous thing in New York. Crossing the thin blue line is not going to
be fun or easy.”

“Fun?”
Margaret said. “It’s downright dangerous.”

“We
can’t go to Ferryman and Reynolds,” Kevin said, nervously running his fingers
through his hair, and retrieving his arm from around Margaret as he sat up.
“They’ll only go on the defensive. And if the case starts turning in that
direction, they’ll only deflect it.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Gregory
Delaurentis spent his adult life roaming from job to job, working for Lockheed
in California, various law firms in New York, and financial firms on Wall
Street. Throughout this period of time, he was writing—unceasingly—finally
producing a large body of work, albeit unrecognized and unpublished . . . until
now. Cover of Darkness is the first in a series of upcoming books that
include Edge of Darkness, Pale of Darkness and Cries of Darkness.
These novels follow the lives of three individuals who do battle bringing
criminals to justice, while they struggle to understand the complex
relationships that exist among themselves. This intriguing trio has absorbed
the attention of Mr. Delaurentis for the past year and a half, so much so he
decided to self-publish their stories to bring them to a wider audience. [AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER: These are works of
fiction. Name, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.]

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About Me

I've been married to the same wonderful man since 1973. We've been blessed with two great sons and three wonderful grandchildren. We live in a small town with our families nearby and count ourselves fortunate to do so.